Shining Pearls E-Book

Ann Omasta

• Herausgeber: More Happily Ever Afters
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

He moved on from heartbreak in the only way he knew how. She trusted him with her heart, mind, body, and soul. When secrets from the past resurface, life as they know it will be destroyed.

Josie Michaels loves single-father Alex and his adorable daughter, Hannah. She completes their family in ways the heartbroken duo could never have imagined.

Alex Biggs needs solace from the torturous pain of his wife, Claire’s, disappearance. He finds sweet relief in the arms of kindhearted, beautiful Josie.

When the truth about Claire’s disappearance surfaces, the secluded bubble of happiness Josie and Alex have forged implodes.

Will these lovable characters find a way to heal and move on from tragedy, or has their path to happiness been crushed beyond repair? Find out now in Shining Pearls.

While this book can be read as a standalone novel, the author suggests reading Shattered Diamonds (Book 1) first for the ultimate reader experience. These exciting contemporary romance novels have been known to make readers desperate to binge the next book in this addictive series. You’ve been warned!

Brunswick Bay Harbor Gems:
1) Shattered Diamonds
2) Shining Pearls
3) Shimmering Emeralds
4) Shadowed Rubies
5) Shocking Sapphires
6) Shaded Amethysts

Leseprobe

Shining Pearls

Brunswick Bay Harbor Gems

Ann Omasta

Contents

Free Book!

1. Claire

2. Josie

3. Claire

4. Josie

5. Claire

6. Claire

7. Josie

8. Alex

9. Josie

10. Claire

11. Josie

12. Claire

13. Josie

14. Claire

15. Josie

16. Claire

17. Josie

18. Claire

19. Josie

20. Claire

21. Josie

22. Claire

23. Josie

24. Claire

25. Josie

26. Claire

27. Josie

28. Claire

29. Josie

30. Claire

31. Josie

32. Claire

33. Josie

34. Claire

35. Josie

36. Claire

37. Josie

38. Claire

Shimmering Emeralds Sneak Peek - Meg

Let’s stay in touch!

Acknowledgments

Copyright

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Escape into the enchanting Hawaiian Islands by reading Leilani's heartwarming tale of friendship, love, and triumph after heartbreak.

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1

Claire

I couldn’t believe I’d finally made it home. I’d escaped. This was the moment I’d been dreaming of and grasping onto as a beacon in the darkness for all of these months.

I stood at the front door of my house, wondering if I should knock or ring the doorbell. It was strange to not know the appropriate way to enter my own home. When I saw the keypad locking mechanism that we had installed as part of our front door upgrade, I decided to try my access code. When it worked, I took that as a good sign.

Grabbing the handle, I took a deep breath and stepped inside my home for the first time in over a year. The man standing in front of me, looking at me like I was a ghost, and my little girl were the reasons why I had fought so hard to survive. I had to make it back to them. They needed me, and I loved them both with my entire being.

My eyes locked onto my handsome husband, not quite able to believe that I was actually finally here with him. It was too surreal––almost like a marvelous dream that I was going to awaken from and return to the devastation that had been my reality for the past year.

Alex looked as stunned as I felt as he stood surrounded by the pile of broken glass where the vase my Aunt Janet had gotten us as a wedding gift had shattered when it slipped from his hands as soon as recognition sank in. He drank in my appearance for a long moment as if not quite believing I was really here. I must have looked like a dirty, disheveled mess, but I didn’t care. I was home.

I ached to run into his arms, but my feet remained firmly planted just inside the entryway of our home. For some strange reason, the tile beneath my feet caught my attention. I stared at the beautiful hunter green slate with lovely russet and gray streaks running through it. Alex and I had spent days narrowing down which tile we wanted to be the first thing guests saw upon entering our home. In the end, Alex had agreed to my selection, of course. He always did his best to make me happy.

Gazing down at the tile now, it was obvious that I chose wisely. The flooring gave a warm, inviting feeling to guests. It was strange, but I currently felt like a visitor in my own home. It had been so long since I had been able to cross this threshold and spend quality time with my family––standing here felt foreign.

Our dog, Pepper, was ecstatic to see me. She nearly bent herself in two as her tail flapped from one side of her body to the other, and she whimpered almost like she was crying with joy. I bent and rubbed her soft ears. “Hey, sweet girl. I missed you, too.”

The dog plopped her butt down right by my foot and leaned her weight against my leg. The familiarity of her was glorious after so long away, but I forced my eyes back up to Alex’s. As much as I loved her, the dog was not where my focus should be in this crucial moment.

My mind was foggy––clogged with so many overpowering emotions.

Alex was the first to regain his wits. He rushed forward, exhaling my name with what sounded like a mixture of both relief and disbelief. “Claire.”

He engulfed me into his warm embrace, and I sank into it, savoring the safety of having his strong arms wrapped around me. As much as I loved our house, hugging Alex––the love of my life––was where I truly felt at home. My body sagged into my husband’s warmth as he held me for the first time in far too long.

My mind was slogging slowly through quick sand, but it did finally begin to process the situation. It took a long moment to register as we stood there pressed together.

When I noticed his semi-hard penis pushing into my abdomen, my first thought was that he was as excited to see me as I was to see him. But that didn’t seem like an appropriate reaction for the very first moments of our reunion. That would come after I’d hugged my little girl to reassure her that I was home and after we sent the police to deal with my kidnapper’s body in his lair.

Alex and I would make love once we were snuggled together in our bed late tonight. I was looking forward to that, and I’m sure he was too, but an immediate hard-on didn’t seem like the right initial reaction from him over my return.

Suddenly, a memory of something I’d glimpsed when I first walked through our front door flashed in my mind. I’d been too excited and flustered to fully process it at the time, but I was fairly certain there was a woman on our sofa.

Placing my palms on Alex’s chest, I stepped back from him. My gaze darted to the couch and stayed there. My mouth fell open as I glared at the pretty woman looking back at me with a wide-eyed, shocked expression. She was vaguely familiar to me, so I must have seen her around town. She hadn’t grown up here, though, or I would have known her and all of her business.

Remembering the firmness I’d noticed in Alex’s pants, my eyes volleyed between this woman and my husband’s lap. My eyelashes fluttered as I attempted to make sense of this new horrific reality.

I struggled to find words. “Are you two…? Were you…?”

I couldn’t make myself even utter the awful questions that were swirling in my mind. Had Alex already moved on from me? Was he in a relationship with this woman? Was he turned on for her?

Alex was mine. He always had been, and I’d thought he always would be. My heart broke into a million pieces when I saw the guilty expression on my husband’s face.

The other woman had the decency to look mortified as she straightened her rumpled clothing and mumbled something about needing to get home before scurrying past me and out the door.

“Claire.” Alex’s pleading tone matched the look in his eyes. “I thought you were gone for good.”

It was true… He had given up on me and moved on with that woman. Dizziness overwhelmed me as I tried to assimilate this harsh reality with the marvelous fantasy reunion I’d been dreaming of for so long.

My stomach roiled, and I wavered on my feet. This must be what it felt like to pass out. My mind disassociated from my body as if it was a balloon flying high above us, watching with detachment as this nightmare unfolded.

Alex reached out to clasp my forearm and steady me. His hand scalded my skin, and I yanked out of his grasp.

I’d never before pulled away from his comforting touch. The heartbroken expression in those eyes I loved so much almost did me in, until I remembered that he had moved on with someone else while I was trapped away from him like a caged animal.

“Please let me explain.”

I shook my head, unable to listen to any excuses for his betrayal. The movement of my head caused the nausea to escalate. Covering my mouth with my hand, I ran for the bathroom, swooping out around the broken glass on the floor, since Pepper was hot on my heels. I barely made it inside our guest bathroom before my stomach completely revolted.

Although I had imagined numerous different scenarios for my triumphant return to my family, none had been remotely close to this nightmare. It almost made me wish I hadn’t managed to escape. At least when I’d been held captive by the madman who stole me from my life, I’d still had hope for the future.

2

Josie

The sidewalk blurred before me as the tears filled my eyes. How could I have let myself become so vulnerable? I’d left my heart exposed. Alex and Hannah had stolen it. But I had failed to remember that they weren’t mine… not really.

Although I’d wanted to believe that we were a happy little family, I was just a temporary stand-in to replace Claire while she was unavailable. Now she was back to resume her rightful place, so where did that leave me? Alone, and feeling like my heart was being cut out of my chest very slowly and with a dull, rusty knife.

Stooping to pick up a sandwich wrapper that was trailing along the sidewalk, I realized that I had always believed myself to be a good person. I worked hard and always tried to do the right thing. Once I committed to something, I was completely dedicated, and I devoted one-hundred percent effort into seeing it through.

Dropping the litter into the garbage receptacle on the corner, it dawned on me that despite my desire to be the hero of my story, I had somehow turned into the villain. I was the intruder in Claire’s happy little family. They rightfully belonged with her, and I was the one who would be ousted from their lives.

The first burning tear finally summitted my lower lid and blazed a hot trail down my cheek. It was quickly followed by several more as I gave in and let the sobs erupt from deep in my chest.

It was later than I would normally be walking home, since I’d intended to stay with Alex, but I didn’t feel frightened. The town had closed up for the night at around nine, so there didn’t appear to be anyone lingering about to see my emotional breakdown. Even if there was, I couldn’t contain it a moment longer. These tears needed to flow.

The most frustrating part was that I didn’t know who to be mad at. It was obvious by the relieved expression on Claire’s face when she walked into her house that she hadn’t been gone by choice.

I couldn’t blame Alex for my broken heart. He had simply been seeking solace in my arms, and he’d made it clear from the beginning that Claire was the love of his life.

Swiping the back of my hand across my wet nose, I realized that I didn’t have anyone to blame for this awful mess, except myself. How could I have allowed myself to fall so hard for a man who could never be mine? Did my stupid heart not have any self-preservation skills?

Somehow, I made it to Aunt Mimi’s house, despite my blubbering. As I opened the gate to walk up the sidewalk to her front porch, it dawned on me that I wasn’t just losing Alex. I was also losing sweet, delightful little Hannah. That adorable little girl had become like a daughter to me, but her real mom was back now, and I had enough sense to know the woman wouldn’t want me to be in the picture at all.

My throat burned with unshed tears. Even though there was a steady trail of them rolling down my cheeks, I knew more were coming. All of this sadness and heartache had to come out somehow––even if I had to spend the next several days wallowing.

Not wanting to wake up Aunt Mimi, I tried to quell my tears until I could get inside. I quietly opened the screen door and turned the knob to open the thick wood door. The stubborn woman refused to lock her front door, even after Claire’s mysterious disappearance. She insisted that Brunswick Bay Harbor was a safe town where neighbors could be trusted and everyone looked out for one another.

Evidently that trust didn’t extend to people walking over her threshold into her home because I was immediately greeted by her Glock handgun pointed at my chest.

I raised my hands in the air. “It’s me, Aunt Mimi!”

The gun didn’t budge as my aunt eyed me warily from her perch on the stairs. “Me, who?”

She didn’t have any other nieces or nephews, but I decided it wouldn’t be prudent to point that out to her while she had a handgun leveled at my heart. Instead, I clarified, “It’s Jo-Jo.”

“How do I know it’s really you?”

I couldn’t believe she was giving me a hard time about this, but she hadn’t lowered the gun, so I played along. Keeping my hands in the air, I slowly moved my arm toward the hallway light switch. Speaking slowly and calmly, I said, “I’m going to turn on the light, so you can see me.”

Once the bright light illuminated the entry, Aunt Mimi blinked her eyes a few times until they adjusted. Finally, she lowered the gun and said, “Jo-Jo, what are you doing home? I thought you were staying with your man tonight.”

“He’s not my man,” I mumbled as the fear of having a gun pointed at me subsided and the emotions of Claire’s return came flooding back.

My heartbreak must have shown on my face because once Mimi got a good look at me, she rushed forward and engulfed me in a hug. I felt the cold, hard edge of steel pressing into the back of my neck as she asked, “What happened, sweetheart?”

Having the weapon that close to my head made me nervous, so I gingerly extricated myself from her embrace before delicately taking the gun and setting it on the lace doily-covered table under the big clock in the entryway.

Once that potential danger was eradicated, I blurted out the words. “Claire’s back.”

Aunt Mimi blinked several times as she processed this news. “What do you mean she’s back?”

It was a dumb question, but I understood her confusion. I felt just as stunned as she looked, and I had seen the woman with my own eyes. “I mean Claire strolled back into her home as if she’d just been out buying groceries for the past year.”

“I thought she was dead.” Mimi stared with wide eyes at the floor as she spoke.

I nodded slowly, coming to the realization that deep down inside, I had assumed she was dead, too.

Still not looking at me, Mimi went on. “I guess a tiny part of me always wondered if Alex killed her. I didn’t want to believe it, but…”

My mouth fell open, and I blinked furiously as I tried to comprehend this revelation. “Wait… You thought there was a chance Alex killed his wife, and you arranged for me to work for him?”

Aunt Mimi lifted her bright blue eyes and bored them into me as she tried to justify sending me to work for a man that she believed might be a killer. Sounding dead-serious, she said, “Honey, you were a terrible waitress.”

3

Claire

Hannah was my number one priority. My little girl needed her mother, and I hadn’t been here in over a year. I couldn’t wait to make up for lost time with her.

Besides, focusing on my sweet child would keep me from having to think about Alex’s betrayal. My mind couldn’t assimilate the loving husband I thought I knew with the man standing before me that had just been canoodling on the couch––our couch––with someone else.

Barging past him, I said, “I need to see Hannah.”

“She’s sleeping.” Alex’s soft voice infuriated me.

Whirling around, I snapped, “I think her mother coming home after being held captive for over a year is worth waking her up.”

Alex gave me one nod before reminding me, “We need to send the police to arrest your captor before he gets away.”

I froze there, staring at him. Saying the words out loud would make it all seem even more real. Bringing Alex and the police into my nightmare would mean I couldn’t pretend it was just my imagination playing horrific tricks on me anymore. I would have to face what really happened in that filthy, musty-smelling basement.

My swallow sounded loud as I tried to utter the words that were caught in my throat. Finally, I managed to croak out the words. “No big hurry. I’m pretty sure he’s dead.”

Alex’s eyes widened marginally, but he held the rest of his face in an emotionless mask as he uttered the single word through gritted teeth. “Who?”

“Kevin Durley.”

Recognition registered in Alex’s eyes after I spat the man’s name. We’d gone to school with Kevin. He’d had a crush on me. His house was three blocks from here.

The overwhelming emotions were obvious on Alex’s face as he processed these facts. His expression crumpled into one of devastation as he said, “You were so close.”

I nodded sadly before saying, “Yet so far.”

Knowing that Alex would have tons of questions as soon as his mind had a chance to work through this, I made a request. “I can’t deal with the police until tomorrow morning. I need a night to just be home before the craziness ensues.”

Rather than waiting for him to answer, I turned back to continue my trek down our hallway to Hannah’s room. Once there, I hesitated in front of her door. I’d imagined this reunion with my daughter so many times. Now that it was actually almost here, my nerves kicked into overdrive. She would be happy to see me, right? My fragile emotions couldn’t handle the heartbreak if she had forgotten me.

I sensed, rather than heard, the moment Alex approached. He stood steadily and calmly at my back, silently giving me strength. He had always been my rock. The realization that he might now be the pretty, young woman from the sofa’s rock made me feel like doubling over in agony. Instead of giving in to that urge, I forced myself to stand tall. I needed to remain strong for Hannah’s sake.

My hand hovered over the door handle. As much as I wanted to turn it and barge inside to my daughter, fear over her reaction held me back.

“She’ll be overjoyed to see you,” Alex’s confident voice rumbled near my ear, setting the tiny hairs on edge like only he could do. I closed my eyes and savored that tentative thread of a connection with him.

Taking a deep breath, I opened my daughter’s bedroom door and walked in. The nightlight illuminated the room enough that I could tell it had changed. Rather than startling her by flipping the switch for the bright light attached to the ceiling fan, I had intended to turn on the small lamp on her dresser, but it was gone––as was the dresser.

Seeming to sense my confusion as I stared at the spot where her dresser had been the last time I was in here, Alex walked over and turned on a sparkly, new lamp that sat on her dresser, which was now located on the opposite wall.

I turned a complete circle as I stared at the room around me, trying to correlate it to the one I knew. This room was a mermaid-princess undersea oasis. It was lovely, but it wasn’t my sweet Hannah’s bedroom that had been filled with a hodge-podge of everything she’d liked over the past several years from Dora the Explorer to Fancy Nancy.

The ragged stuffed giraffe sitting beside the lamp caught my eye. Snickers had been Hannah’s constant companion since she was a baby. I picked up the worn toy and closed my eyes as I held it to my face. I couldn’t believe she was sleeping without it in the bed beside her. She had always insisted that he be tucked in right next to her while she slept. How had so much changed since I’d last been here?

Alex sat down on the edge of the bed and patted Hannah’s shoulder. “Wake up, sweetheart. Mommy’s home!”

Hannah’s eyelids fluttered as she tried to process her father’s words. Her expression crumpled into one of confusion as she stared up at him and said, “Mommy’s here?”

Staring at my perfect daughter, I almost couldn’t believe I was really back. Her hair had been weaved into tight braids, her two front teeth had been replaced by bigger versions, and she looked so much more grown up. It was obvious that her father had taken excellent care of her while I was gone.

Gingerly sitting on the side of the bed across from Alex, I said through a blur of unshed tears, “I’m home, Hannah-Banana.”

Disbelief clouded her bright blue gaze as she stared up at me. “Mommy? Am I dreaming?”

I chuckled as I brushed the back of my finger along her soft, freckled cheek. “No, sweetie. You’re not dreaming. I feel like I am though. I missed you so much.”

“I missed you too, Mommy!” My daughter launched herself into my arms, and suddenly all was right with my world again.

The soft scent of strawberry shampoo and a mysterious and marvelous ‘little girl’ smell that I’ll chalk up to being fairy dust wafted up from her damp braids as we hugged. A sob caught in my throat as I clutched the very center of my existence.

As I held my daughter, all of the fear and stress of the past year fell away. I was back where I belonged, with the people who mattered to me.

I kept my arms tight around Hannah, but I lifted my head to look at Alex. A stray tear was blazing a trail down his cheek as he watched my emotional reunion with our daughter. We locked eyes over Hannah’s head, and I suddenly knew that he was still my charming, handsome, and devoted Alex––the love of my life.

It wasn’t until Hannah pulled back and spoke that the magical spell woven around us was broken. I felt my spine stiffen and heard Alex’s quick intake of breath, when Hannah gazed up at me with excited, giant blue eyes and asked, “Mommy, have you met Aunt Jo yet?”

4

Josie

Sun was streaming in cheerfully through the window, mocking me. I was tempted to get up and pull the blinds closed, but I didn’t have the energy to walk across the room.

Aunt Mimi had been in earlier to deliver a mug of hot tea and try to rouse me out of bed, but I had snapped at her and pulled the covers higher over my head until she went away. When she had revealed the name of Claire’s captor, I’d had questions, but couldn’t drum up the enthusiasm to ask them. I recognized the man’s name and knew that I had seen him around town, usually with a hoodie pulled up over his head to help hide the scars on his face.

“He’s still at large, but he’s injured.” Mimi had told me from the hallway on her way out of my room. I’m sure she was trying to intrigue me into getting up to get the full scoop on Claire’s abduction, but I just couldn’t.

Even if Kevin Durley dragged himself in here, I’d roll over and go back to sleep. This must be what it felt like to be on the cusp of depression. Claire had just gotten her life back after a full year of what had to have been hell, and her freedom had lost me the two most important people in my life.